“The problem is, you brought in the gun that was used in the Driveway Shooter murders, and another one that was used in a double-homicide, over five years later. The problem is, you’re the daughter of the prime suspect, and you’re the one that brought them in.”
My eyes closed as I turned my face to look away from my father.
Dale turned his face towards my father. “How about you, Mr. Hayes? Care to add any insight?”
I heard my dad inhale and exhale. “My father had a hodge-podge collection of guns. I don’t know where he got them from. They were left in the house, after his death, so I guess you could say I inherited them.”
“How many are we talking?”
“Five.”
“When did you give them to your daughter?”
“I didn’t.”
“Then how did she manage to get them and bring them in?”
“Upon my return from Alaska, I was told there’d been a leak in the master bedroom. That the plumber and Penny had been up there, to see to the repair. When I went up to check things out, the guns were missing from their concealed location.”
“So, they were stolen from you?”
I could literally feel my father’s eyes on me. “I would imagine they were confiscated.”
“And why would someone feel they had the right to confiscate them, Mr. Hayes?”
“Because I’m on parole for attempted murder, and I’m not allowed to possess firearms.”
“So, you knew it was illegal to hold on to them?”
“Yes, I did.”
“You said there were five guns, in total. Where is the fifth one?”
“It was removed from my person, the night I was arrested for attempted murder. I saw it once during the trial. I haven’t seen it since.”
“So, you used one of your father’s guns to try and kill someone.”
“It’s all over the transcripts from the trial that I did.”
“Did you ever use any of the other guns, Mr. Hayes?”
“Yes. I’ve handled them all, but I’ve really only used two of the others.”
“And what did you use them for?”
“I used one to kill my daughter’s sexual abuser. I tagged my other daughter’s physical abuser as a bonus, too. But you already know that.”
“And the other gun?”
“I killed twenty-one people, in their driveways, after I followed them home as they drove drunk.”
Dale let out a long sigh and turned back to me. “Penny?”
My voice was devoid of emotion when I answered. “I stubbed my toe on the toe kick under his bathroom sink. It popped open a hidden drawer. The guns were there. I didn’t know they were murder weapons. I just knew that he wasn’t supposed to have any firearms. I didn’t want to see him ever get in trouble for them, not after he’d been clear of any suspicion for the last ten years. So, I took them and turned them in under anonymous surrender.”
“And you thought that would be enough to protect him?”
My eyes flew to his. “I didn’t know they’d been used in any murders. I figured he’d held onto them, didn’t know how to get rid of them, or didn’t want to, and an anonymous surrender would be the best and safest bet, to protect him.”
“And instead, it busted him.”
“Not my intention.”
“Why play dumb when I came in?”
“Because I brought them in five weeks ago, Dale. I figured they’d have been checked within a week, two at the most, and then destroyed. It’s been over a month, why the hell would I think this had anything to do with that?”
Dale turned to face Dad. “See, if the guns had come back from testing without any matches for bullet-casing markings, we would have left the anonymity stand. Her plan would have worked to protect you from any future weapons violations. But, because they hit matches in unsolved murder files, we had to investigate.”
“I understand.”
“Also, once she saw that you had guns, she had a legal obligation to take them.”
“I understand.”
“You should also understand that the entirety of this conversation has been recorded with both video and audio.”
“I would expect nothing less.”
Dale turned to me. “I’m going to go try and smooth this over with internal affairs.”
I nodded.
“I’m going to need you to sit tight, while I do that, okay?”
I nodded again.
He stood, glancing between us before turning and leaving the room.
The silence in the room was broken only by the sound of the air conditioning blowing through the vent above the door.
“Penny…”
My head was still tilted to the side as I went back to staring at the corner of the room.
“Penny?”
Have you ever had an experience where you get news you never wanted to hear, but you did anyway, and now it’s just there, hanging in the air around you? You know the validity of truth behind it, and you know what it means, but you haven’t just reached out to mentally own it yet? Because that’s where I was with it all.
“Penny, I don’t know how much time I have, and there are things I need someone to know.”
I let out a sigh, to let him know that I was listening.
“There are trust funds set up in all five names of the kids, and one for Kelly. The paperwork for it is in my personal safe. Kelly knows how to get into it. Max knows that if anything is ever to happen to me, that the business is his to run and that half the profits are his, and the other half goes to Kelly. And I sincerely hope that you three girls and Kelly can continue your relationships with one another. I’m sure she’ll let Sophie and Charlotte stay in the house until they graduate college and have a chance to get on their feet.”
I turned to look at him, staring.
He shrugged. “I figured one day it would all catch up to me. That I wouldn’t be able to hide it forever. So, I made plans. Max and Kelly think that it’s because I’m so much older than them. But, I always phrased my plans as ‘in case something should happen to me’ and now something has.”
I just kept staring.
“Penny, honey, I was sick. I was so mentally twisted in the head that I had a system of justification for my every action. I didn’t even realize how sick it was, the thoughts going through my mind. Even going through all the therapy I was, after your mother’s death, I still couldn’t make the distinction. The therapy wasn’t helping, the only thing that lessened the burden of grief and blame within me was to prevent the same thing from happening to other innocent people. I could breathe more deeply, and rest more peacefully, with every drunk driver kill I made. I didn’t get it, until I had to live with intense therapy every single day.”
I still wouldn’t talk to him.
“I really do believe that’s what finally cured me. I mean, sure, everything I did for those five years, I did with the singular purpose of winning over the parole board, but they ‘fixed’ me along the way. I mean, the only reason I killed Sophie’s abuser was because she was ashamed and I just wanted to make it stop as painlessly for her as possible. I didn’t intend on shooting Charlotte’s abuser because she was already safe. I was content to let others investigate and have him end up in jail, but he witnessed me killing Sophie’s abuser, so I told him who I was and relished the look on his face, right before I shot him. And the thing is, sweetheart, I didn’t view it as a setback. I viewed it as the least I could do to protect two of my daughters, after failing them so miserably.” He stopped talking and settled pleading eyes on me.
The silent pleading is what broke me. “I get it, Dad.”
“You do?” his voice sounded so hopeful.
“I do. I’ve studied enough psychology that I get all of it. The court won’t, and you will spend the rest of your life behind bars, but I do understand.”
He took a breath, “That’s all I can hope for.”
“Here’s what I don’t understand, why the hell would
you keep the murder weapons around?”
He drew in a long breath. “Closure.”
“For who?”
“For the families of the victims. Part of what tore me up inside was that I didn’t have any closure from, well, anything in my life, really.”
“So, what was your plan, exactly?”
“Honestly? It was my hope that after I died, you or Kelly would find them. It’d all get put together, and the surviving family members of my victims would know why someone felt their loved ones or abuser had to die.”
“But you lived with the possibility of this, right here, happening?”
He nodded. “I’m not without a conscience, Penny. I viewed it as my penance.”
“Ugh, Dad.”
“It made me ever more grateful of the time I got to spend with you and your sisters. Ever more grateful to have found love again. Grateful for the house I had and the staff that worked for me. It’s made me humble. Anytime I ever began to take anything for granted, I’d just have to open that drawer and look at those guns. I’d be automatically reminded how I don’t deserve the life I’ve been able to build and enjoy this last decade.”
The silence filtered down around us, much of the previous tension gone. “Does anyone else know you’re here?”
He shook his head. “I left to meet with my parole officer. He cuffed me and brought me in.”
“Does your grand plan include the name of a preferred lawyer?”
Again, he shook his head.
“Because you’re guilty.”
“Yes.”
My eyes drifted to the side as I thought back to my part in the double-homicide. About how I aided and abetted his breaking his parole by meeting with him all those times… About how I’m the one that told him the names of their schools and how he must have used that to track down their houses, and how it all ended in him killing two people. But, then again, that’s how the abuse came to a stop for two of my sisters.
He waited for my eyes to cycle back around to his. “None of this is your fault, baby girl.”
I kept my eyes on him and sighed.
“I, and I alone, am responsible for the things that I have done, both good and bad.”
I shook myself out of my thoughts on the good he’d done these past years. “I’m going to call Logan, once they excuse me from the room, and have him grab someone from the firm to come over here for you.”
He nodded. “I’d appreciate that.”
“Okay.”
“I need you to do something else for me.”
I reached up with my hand, gripping the front of my forehead, trying to shift myself from listening mode to action mode. “Name it.”
“I need you to go to the house and tell everyone there. I don’t know if you want to do it with everyone at once, or break them into groups. I’ll let you decide that. I just don’t want them to be told with a phone call or, God forbid, they find out through social media or the news. Once this story hits, it’s going to spread fast.”
All I could do was nod.
He shook his head as my eyes clouded over with unshed tears.
“Don’t you dare cry. I did this to myself.”
“I can’t believe you’re trying to comfort me.”
“It’s all I can do.”
“I’m really, really sorry I stubbed my toe.”
He let out a sigh. “So am I. But, if it was going to happen, I’m glad it was you and not Kelly. And, frankly, I’m glad I wasn’t there to see it, because I would have tried to talk my way through it and smooth it over, and that would have put you in a more difficult position than you were already in. You did right by turning them into the station. I need you to know that I understand that you were trying to protect me. I know your intentions were to both protect me and adhere to the law. I appreciate that you thought you’d found a loophole to make it all okay for my future.”
“And instead, it robbed you of the future you could have had.”
“It was a future I had no right to.” He let out another sigh. “I need you and your sisters to keep an eye on Kelly and make sure she finds her way through this. She does not deserve what she’s about to go through. I can only hope that I treated her well enough that she doesn’t come to hate me. If she decides that she wants a divorce, I won’t contest it. I’ll do anything I can to help make it as smooth as possible for her to get out of it.”
“Okay.”
“And you and your sisters watch each other, please. I constantly worry about a shift in mental health. If anything starts for any of the three of you, please call each other out on it and get that one help. Please. I don’t want any of you ruining your futures like I have ruined mine.”
I nodded on another sigh.
“I need the cycle of mental illness and subsequent abuse and self-destruction to stop with me. Please, baby.”
My eyes clouded again. “Okay.”
“I love you,” he breathed on a harsh whisper.
“I’ve never felt anything but love from you. I absolutely love you, too.”
“Thank you.”
Dale opened the door. “Penny, you can come on out.”
I nodded and glanced at Dad. “I’ll be back to see you.”
He winked at me. “I’ll be here.”
I went after Dale and kept my head down as I followed behind him, past the people who’d been eavesdropping on our conversation, through hallways, and into the Land of the Lost room.
Dale shut the door after we’d entered, then he turned to face me. “You’re on a week’s worth of paid leave. The department will be understanding of the position you’re being put in right now, as long as you don’t interfere with his due process.”
“I need them to safeguard his mental stability,” I countered. “If this causes him to have another break, and it isn’t treated, I can’t imagine what kind of inmate he’s going to be. When he’s in control of his mentality, he follows every rule. That’s why you all are going to want to help him maintain his sanity.”
Dale nodded. “Understood. I’ll make sure he has therapists working with him.”
“Okay,” I said, gripping my forehead again, “I have to go. I have to get him a lawyer, and tell my sisters and his employees, and then I have to break my stepmother’s heart.”
“Um, a couple of things, Penelope.”
I resisted the urge to go curl up in the corner against the filing cabinets. “I’m listening.”
“One, you will attend weekly therapy sessions with one of our inhouse people.”
I looked at him.
“You have a family history of mental illness and have been put through hell because of it. And now it’s shaking your world again. We’ll safeguard your father’s mental health, but we’re going to take care of yours, as well.”
I didn’t like it, but, “That’s fair.”
“And two, I promise to keep you apprised of our case against him, and maybe even let you watch recordings of interviews, but you stay out of the investigation. Your mouth stays shut unless you’re bringing additional facts, not opinions or preferences, understood?”
My hand went to hip, and I shifted my stance. “Sounds fair.”
“And third, and I don’t want you to lose sight of this, you were instrumental in solving twenty-three murder cold cases today. I know you won’t find any pride in that just yet, but that’s what’s going into your service record. Whatever awards or promotions it helps you to get, accept them. You’re going to reap plenty of bad from all this in your personal life. Take whatever good you can get from it in your professional life, to help balance it all out. Let some good come from all this.”
I sighed. I’d gotten rather skilled at finding the good in a bad situation, but this seemed monumentally bad, at the moment. “I’ll try.”
“And lastly, take your father’s words to heart. He brought this onto himself. Not one bit of this is your fault. You brought him to justice, and you both know it.”
“He was sick!”
>
“And that will be taken into account. Do not beat yourself up over this, understand?”
“I’ll do my best.”
“All right, go take care of your family.”
I nodded, emotionally wiped from it all, yet knowing I had to start gearing myself up for the next round.
“Hey,” Dale said, his tone gentling.
“What?”
“Can I give you a hug without it becoming a whole, big HR thing?”
I nodded, whispering, “I could really use a hug.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
There’s No Stuffing Them Back in the Closet Now
‘We’ve got a situation. Everyone get to the house, now. Drop whatever you’re doing and leave, now. Gonna need Max, too. I’m omw, 20 min,’ I typed into a group chat amongst the family.
I hit the button to unlock my car, got in, put my Bluetooth in my ear, and dialed Logan. My phone was dinging with responses, but I tossed the phone on the passenger seat, put the key in the ignition, and started driving.
“What’s up, babe?” Logan answered.
“You were right, I was wrong.”
Silence.
“Logan?”
“Sorry, sweetheart, I’m pretty sure I didn’t hear you right. Can you say it again?”
He almost got a smile out of me. “You were right, I was wrong.”
“Wow. Hold on while I process this. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard those words come from your lips. At least not directed towards me.”
“You about done?”
“I would like to reserve the right to bring this back up in future conversations.”
“Okay, no problem. I’ll be sure to list at least five instances when I was right, after each time you bring up your little, lonely, one time.”
He chuckled. “So, what was I right about?”
“Dad needs a lawyer.”
“Damn. Did they already bring him in?”
“Yep. He went in to meet with his PO, and he got cuffed.”
“Has he admitted anything?”
“Yeah, twenty-three murders. He was the serial killer, and committed the double-homicide.”
“The guns?”
“Yep.”
“Do you need a lawyer?”
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